


Three Cigarettes Later

by bilboswaggins



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Language, M/M, Post-Canon, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 07:16:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4339001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bilboswaggins/pseuds/bilboswaggins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time he saw him after it all, Eggsy was there for his official swearing in to the new position, and he smiled and offered his hand in a congratulatory handshake. No talk of Kentucky. No welcome home. No nothing. Harry’s heart seized up, but he accepted the handshake and returned it politely, trying not to watch him from the corner of his eye the rest of the meeting.</p>
<p>As soon as he was done that day, he bought a pack of cigarettes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Cigarettes Later

Harry leaned over his desk, resting his forehead in the palm of his open hand, the other almost nervously twiddling the lit cigarette dangling between two fingers. The sun had almost gone down, casting pale orange light into the room and onto his face, not that he cared enough to move. Strictly speaking, he shouldn’t even be smoking in here, but hell, he figured, he was Arthur, he could do as he bloody well liked. He stood in a sudden movement, his body seeming to decide to do so before his mind did, and he was walking across to the window, one hand in his pocket, the other bringing the cigarette to his lips.

“Go home, Harry.”

The voice in his earpiece was stern, yet concerned. Harry ignored it, and continued looking out the window at nothing in particular.

“Harry I know you can hear me. Go home. Get some rest.”

Still, the voice was met with silence. Harry exhaled the smoke, letting it lazily drift past his face and up to disperse in the air, the scent no doubt lingering behind. His left eye twitched.

“Don’t make me come up there.”

“It…. Was fine,” Harry finally answered, slowly. “He handled himself beautifully, all things considered.”

“Yes,” came the reply after a moment, sounding reluctant. “The mission was a success, the boy will make a full recovery.”

“In time.” Harry took another drag as he turned away from the window, beginning a slow pace behind the chairs set facing his new desk. “Once the bone heals and the bullet wounds scar over.”

“It happens, Harry.” Merlin was firm, and Harry could almost make out the takking of a keyboard in the background. “You’ve had your share of close scrapes and scars to show for it, remember.”

Harry said nothing. He put out the cigarette in the small ashtray he’d set up on the corner of the desk for just such occasions, but regretted it almost immediately, wanting something to do with his hands. Maybe a drink?

“Go. Home.” He repeated, more loudly than before. “Worrying in your office won’t do you any good. You can see the boy in the morning.”

But would Eggsy even want to see him? When Harry had returned two months ago he had expected Eggsy to be waiting for him with his happy grin, thrilled to see him, and, he even dared to hope, maybe waiting with a hug to welcome him back. His face was what he thought of a lot during his stay at that Kentucky hospital, always worrying. Where was he? What was he doing? Was he safe? And when V Day erupted and subsided, leaving Harry coming to his senses just in time to stop himself from impaling a nurse with his IV stand (but not enough to stop her from stabbing him with a scalpel, that lengthened his stay a bit), worry burst from him almost immediately. Did Eggsy do it? Did he survive? Did he stop this? Eggsy and Merlin were all on his mind until he was picked up by Roxanne and Merlin a week later. Eggsy was not with them.

He had asked, and they had evaded the question until he demanded their answer. He had elected not to come. When the plane landed, Eggsy was not at HQ. The first time he saw him after it all, Eggsy was there for his official swearing in to the new position, and he smiled and offered his hand in a congratulatory handshake. No talk of Kentucky. No welcome home. No nothing. Harry’s heart seized up, but he accepted the handshake and returned it politely, trying not to watch him from the corner of his eye the rest of the meeting.

As soon as he was done that day, he bought a pack of cigarettes.

Eggsy’s latest mission had had a complication. Harry was proud of how easily he had gotten out of it, how he had salvaged the mission and gotten out with only a broken wrist and a few shots to the shoulder, but Eggsy had not checked in with Harry, had only spoken to Merlin since, and was now safe and resting in the Kingsman Infirmary.

Harry lit up his third cigarette of the evening.

“—will call in a Taxi and drag you out if I need to. If you’re not packed in ten minutes I’m—“

“I’m going to see him.”

Merlin’s speech, having been mostly ignored by Harry anyway, paused, and he could almost hear him blinking in confusion. “… Now?”

“Now.” Harry did pack up his things, putting a few files into a briefcase and clicking the locks shut with the still-lit cigarette between his teeth, and started a brisk walk toward the lift.

“But he is probably asleep-“

“He can sleep later.” Harry was determined, his mind made up. Eggsy was going to talk to him. He would only be pacing and worrying at home, anyway. He stepped into the lift, jabbing the floor button a little harder than need-be, and stood stiffly as he waited for it to descend.

“… If you must,” Merlin sighed in his ear. “I’m about to go home myself. I’m switching off the feed from your glasses. But if you don’t text me that you’re headed home soon, I’ll come down there and drag you out by the ear,” he said in an empty threat, and Harry almost cracked a smile.

“Duly noted. Ga—Arthur out.” And he took off his glasses for good measure and stuck them in the pocket of his suit coat.

The lift came to a shaky halt and the metal doors slid open, but Harry was stepping through before it was all the way open for him. The infirmary was a small set of four rooms in a protected wing, isolated from the rest of the working space of the manor HQ. He pressed his hand to a scanning plate by a locked door and was let through, doing the same to the second barrier, until he stopped in front of Eggsy’s room.

Nervously, he took another drag off his cigarette before (and he didn’t think this one through properly) setting it down somewhere to be disposed of properly later, putting it out on a small surface that it didn’t seem the end of the world to leave a mark on. He could get it fixed up later.

Shoulders set, he pushed open the door to the room. It was decently sized, one bed and one chair beside it, the sleeping occupant hooked up to two machines that quietly beeped in the background, and a few other cozy commodities and sink set up for him. Harry ignored all of this, and stood at Eggsy’s bedside, looking at his face. He looked quite peaceful, snoring quietly, and Harry could actually get a good look at him, seeing for the first time the roots of his hair were a darker colour than the rest. Did he dye it blonde? He could never tell, not with that awful snap back he wore…

A hand reached out and lightly prodded Eggsy’s shoulder as Harry’s voice said quietly, “Eggsy.”

He was awake almost instantly, and it seemed as though he had moved to lift his hand defensively, but was stopped by the sling his arm was resting in, if his pained grimace and hiss were anything to go by. “Fucking hell—“ He blinked and furrowed his brow as he struggled to focus on Harry, who had withdrawn his hand rather hastily. Once he registered who it was, he didn’t relax so much as sank into a different kind of tension, not alert for danger, but still on edge. Harry’s heart dropped.

“… Hello, Eggsy.”

“Sir.” He answered almost immediately, and Harry bit back a noise of frustration. “I’m sorry I didn’t report-“

“I don’t care about that.” He slowly sank into the chair there, holding his hands and twisting and squeezing them as he frowned at Eggsy. “Are you in much pain?”

“No,” he sighed, shaking his head. “On enough pain pills to not feel very much.” He didn’t look at Harry.

“…I’m sorry.” He didn’t know what he was apologizing for, and nor did Eggsy, for he only shrugged his un-slung shoulder. “…Eggsy.”

“What?” He finally looked at him, eyes defiant, yet held something behind them that Harry could not place.

“What is wrong?” Harry frowned at him, genuinely confused, his hands squeezing each other as he forced the question out.

“I don’t-“

“You have been avoiding me since I got back.”

“Oh.” Eggsy looked uneasy, looking away again to study his arm. “Yeah. Guess I have.” Harry burned to ask why, but thought better of it, letting Eggsy think through whatever it was he had to say and allowing him to answer in his own time. “…I jus… Didn’t know what you’d do, y’know? Thought I should keep m’distance an all.” He was pleased to hear his natural accent coming back, taking it as a good sign. “I mean, b’fore you left… Y’were so angry… Thought y’might’ve--”

Harry blinked, cutting him off. “You mean at my home?”

“Yeah.” Eggsy shook his head, eyes closing momentarily. “’m sorry I fucked it all up. I’ve been givin you some space. So you can jus kind of do your job an not worry about me. I mean y’ve got other stuff now, an--”

“Space?” Harry sat up in his seat again, eyebrows raised. “I… I have wanted nothing more than to speak with you. I’ve been worried nearly constantly, asking Merlin how you’re doing, reading those post-mission files over and over…” His fingers twitched, but he held his gaze on Eggsy’s face, grateful when shy green eyes glanced over to him again. “But you have been avoiding me because of my outburst about the fucking—?”

He was standing, his hand reaching out again before he could stop it to cup the side of Eggsy’s face, looking into his unsure eyes. He looked nervous, and Harry could kick himself. “I apologize for that, dear boy. I apologize for raising my voice at my home, for disappearing, for not seeking you out sooner. I rather felt you had decided you no longer wanted to see me, too.”

“No,” Eggsy’s eyes widened a bit as he shifted to sit up a little straighter in the mountains of pillows he was propped on. “Course not, Harry.”

Harry struggled to not shake his head. Weeks of worrying and waiting and arguing with himself for nothing. Eggsy had probably been as anxious as he had. He looked into the innocent and earnest face below him and felt the urge rising that he had been suppressing for some time, that he had been sweeping under the rug and refusing to acknowledge. But in light of these new revelations, why should he? He took a breath and took the plunge, leaning down to press his lips to Eggsy’s firmly.

The lips quivered under his in hesitation but they were pressing back against him quickly after that, and Harry felt a hand clutch at his shoulder to keep him from moving away. Harry melted as his heart quickly rose, feeling so relieved and pleased and well, happy. Eggsy seemed to have been feeling similar things, for the hand on his shoulder tightened its grip as his lips parted, kissing him until they needed to break apart.

Eggsy’s lips were twitching in a small smile, Harry smiling right back with the corners of his eyes crinkling as they did when he was smiling genuinely. They were silent for a moment, then Eggsy’s smile grew to a smirk as he said: “Didn’t know you was a smoker, Harry.”

“I- oh,” Harry looked almost sheepish as he sat back down in his seat again, one hand in his lap and the other clenching and unclenching in a fist at the arm rest, unsure what it wanted to do with itself. “Only in times of stress.”

Eggsy scoffed, but looked a great deal happier than when Harry had first woken him, nonetheless. His happy, smiling boy was back, and that was all that mattered. He’d missed this. “Well stop. Bad for y’r lungs an all that.”

“Hypocrite,” Harry chuckled. “I know you smoke after missions, and occasionally after drinks.”

“Spyin on me?”

“I _am_ a spy.”

“Well there’s one more thing I smoke after,” and he winked, though pink flushed his cheeks as he did so. Harry almost laughed.

“When you’re well, perhaps we shall find out what that is.” He stood, and leaned over him again, though this time to press a kiss to his forehead. But the hand caught his jacket before he could pull away, and tugged him down for a proper kiss again, this one chaste and sweet. “Rest up, darling boy.”

“Fine,” he sighed dramatically, fidgeting in the bed as Harry moved away for the door again. “But after that, I won’t be able to sleep for a bit.”

“You’ll manage.” Harry smiled again, brighter, feeling lighter than he thought possible when he walked down there not fifteen minutes ago.

“Bye, Harry,” Eggsy sighed, wriggling to a comfortable position rather adorably, in Harry’s opinion. “See you tomorrow?” He asked, rather hopefully.

“For you, anything.”

**Author's Note:**

> I thought it was time to work out the rust on my writing skills and churn something out.
> 
> From a tumblr prompt: How did Hartwin's first kiss happen?
> 
> Come find me there at yeseggsy.


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